


day by day, minute by minute (this too shall pass)

by Ambs_Writes



Category: The Haunting of Bly Manor (TV)
Genre: Angst, F/F, Fluff, Happy Ending, No Lesbians Die, Post-Canon Fix-It, Slice of Life, after bly, all other characters at least mentioned - Freeform, i just have a lot off feels okay, jamie and dani living their lives
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-10-19
Updated: 2020-10-31
Packaged: 2021-03-08 22:15:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 12
Words: 15,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27094147
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Ambs_Writes/pseuds/Ambs_Writes
Summary: "Hey Poppins," Jamie says and there's something different about her voice, something soft and warm that makes Dani feel infinitely more relaxed. "When did your eyes go back to normal?""What?" Dani asks as she turns toward the mirror, toothbrush falling out of her hand. Her reflection stares back at her, only her reflection. Blonde hair, fair skin, pink lips, and two blue eyes.Two blue eyes.orDani and Jamie after Bly, a story in 12 parts.
Relationships: Dani Clayton/Jamie
Comments: 62
Kudos: 918





	1. The First Night

**Author's Note:**

> Each part will get longer. I'll be posted parts 1-10 right together. Enjoy!

It's not that Dani can't sleep. The opposite really. There's an exhaustion deep in her bones, throbbing in the finger shaped bruises on her neck. She hasn't slept since they crawled out of the lake the night before, so late into the night that it was more accurate to call it morning. At the time, there'd been so much to do. The children needed to be checked on and looked over, reassured that none of what happened was their fault. There was the well to look into, the heartbreak on Owen's face when he saw the figure at the bottom. Hanna had deserved so much more. Then there was the story to tell Henry, the dreams and the ghosts and all the times the children had been tucked away somewhere else while their bodies were driven around by another. There were plans to be made and drinks to be drank and such an air of sadness and regret, Dabi felt like she couldn't breathe. 

Through it all, Jamie was right by her side. It was Jamie who helped pull Dani and Flora from the water. Jamie who held Dani upright in the cold air as Dani adjusted to the feeling of having too much inside of her, too many souls. Jamis who held Dani's hand on top of the table with no fear or shame as they told Henry what happened. Jamie who stayed with Dani through the laborious process of getting Flora and Miles clean, warm, and tucked into bed. Jamie who helped Dani fumble through her own shower with hands striking softly over her skin like Dani was something to be revered. Jamie, who borrowed a shirt to sleep in and pulled Dani down onto the bed with her at the end of the endless day they'd had. 

It was in Jamie's warm embrace that Dani knew it would be all too easy to fall asleep in that Dani laid awake. She couldn't sleep. Not yet. She didn't know what she'd see when she closed her eyes. 

She could feel the Lady of the Lake in the back of her mind, a prickling sensation that tingled along the top of her spine like someone was watching her, constantly. It wasn’t anything like Dani thought it would be like, but then again she hadn’t really known what to expect when she invited the faceless woman into her body. She hadn’t really known that that was what she was doing when she spoke the words. It’s you, it’s me, it’s us. That was what Miles and Flora had said up in the attic with Peter and Rebeca. Those were the words that had fallen from Dani’s lips desperately, everything in her body demanding she do whatever it took to save that little girl. 

She felt like she couldn’t breathe when it happened, still wasn’t sure that she was breathing anymore anyway. Not like Jamie was, soft puffs of warm air against the top of Dani’s hair. Dani was curled up against Jamie’s chest, Jamie had fallen asleep trailing her fingers through Dani’s hair. She didn’t feel warm in the way that Jamie did, warm and soft and safe. Dani felt cold and full and so very angry. A rage unlike any she’d ever known coursed through her, a rage that wasn’t her own. 

The rage was the scariest part. The kind of rage that made Dani unrecognizable when she looked in the mirror, one eye blue and one eye brown. This was the kind of rage that destroyed things, destroyed people. People were fragile and delicate and important and Dani couldn’t stand the thought of hurting them. Of hurting Jamie. Jamie who was soft and warm and fragile and who held Dani like she was the most important person in her world. 

So that first night, with the rage boiling in her system and the warmth of Jamie beneath her, Dani stayed awake. She stayed awake and prayed for the night that the rage would fade and she could finally rest.


	2. The First Month

Travelling back to America was different than travelling away from America, largely because of the company. When Dani had come to England, she’d been running from a tragic past all on her own, seeing the ghost of her dead fiance in every reflective surface she’d past. Now, over half a year later, she was leaving England to run from a traumatic stay at a haunted manor with the reason for said haunting taking up space inside her mind, but at least she wasn’t alone. 

It seemed like Jamie was always there, always ready to step up right as the emotions that Dani couldn’t process began to swell up. Jamie was there with her soothing voice and smooth skin, soft lips pressing assurances deep into Dani’s skin like she thought if she said them often enough, hard enough, Dani would start to believe them too. Dani hoped she was right. 

They spent as little time as possible in the manor right after everything happened, only staying long enough to pack up their belongings and make arrangements in a hotel in town. The next four weeks they spent in England, somewhere in limbo between wanting to plan for the future and taking things one day at a time. It wasn’t until after Dani began letting herself sleep that she started to think maybe things would be alright, not until she slept without nightmares. She still wouldn’t let Jamie plan Christmas. That was too far away, there was too much that could happen in the time between. 

The idea to go to America had been spur of the moment, as most of their ideas were since leaving Bly Manor. A phone call from Henry had let them know that he and the children had settled in upstate New York in a house that while still rather large lacked the complicated, haunting history of the manor. A house with many rooms that Dani and Jamie were welcome to use if they ever found themselves state-side. 

Dani was nervous about flying overseas, worried that the Lady of the Lake would rise up in her suddenly and demand to return to Bly Manor. She feared what she would do if that happened. The Lady of the Lake had proven herself to be exceptionally strong-willed, a will so strong that not even time and losing her own face had been able to weaken her. If she wanted control, Dani didn’t stand a chance against her. 

“Poppins,” Jamie had said softly, cupping Dani’s face as they laid in the bed of the hotel room in London the night before their flight out. “Day by day, remember? If we wake up tomorrow, and you can’t get on the plane then that’s okay. But you deserve the chance to try, to live. Don’t let your fear of her take that away from us.” 

It’s the word ‘us’ that convinces her, that has Dani leaning forward to press her lips and Jamie’s in that way that is becoming more and more familiar with each passing day. Day by day may be their go-to when it comes to planning ahead, but there’s comfort in knowing Jamie plans to be there for each day that comes. It’s different in the best way to have her there. Dani doesn’t feel like Jamie is there out of some odd obligation or because everyone expects her to be like it had been with Eddie. Jamie is there because she wants to be, because she sees something in Dani that she thought might have been worth it, like the bloom of the moonflower. So much work for a single night of beauty. 

It’s the first time that rage inside Dani begins to soften around the edges, dulling a bit. 

That night is the first time Dani dreams about Viola Lloyd. 

It’s not exactly a nightmare like she’d been expecting to have for quite some time now. It was more of an out of body experience. She was watching Viola and her sister, whose name eluded her for the time being, sitting at the bedside of their dead father. She saw their determination to keep their wealth in the family, to not let their father’s good legacy be lost to the wiles of some pompous rich man. She saw the fierce love and devotion Viola felt for her sister, her family, and understood that Viola would do anything for them. 

When she wakes, the rage is different. It’s simmering closer to the surface now but not as hot as it had been, not at first. Not until she feels Jamie’s body shift against hers and Dani feels as if her soul snaps back into her body before she can realize that there was something that had quelled the rage for a moment, something in the dream that was stronger than the rage Viola felt. 

She tells Jamie about the dream when they’re on the plane, lights dim as they fly over the Atlantic. Dani tells her how the rage is still there, the beast in the jungle is still haunting her, hunting her, but it’s different now. It feels like the rage is masking something else. Jamie seems to believe that if they can figure out what’s behind the rage, they can get rid of Viola all together. 

Dani hopes they can, prays that one day they can plan for more than day by day. 

Because being with Jamie feels a lot like something that could last forever if they wanted it too and Dani can’t think of a single thing she’d want more.


	3. The First Six Months

Being in America again feels way more forign that being in England had been. Dani had gotten used to the accents and the weather and the British version of tea that having iced sweet tea in a pitcher throws her off more than she thought it would. It helps being with Henry and the kids, though. They still take their tea the proper way, according to Jamie, and Flora still describes everything as perfectly splendid and it’s enough to help Dani relax. Of course, it helps that Jamie is there as well, always with their hands locked together. It’s one of the best feelings in Dani’s world, having Jamie’s hand in hers and knowing that they can at least look forward to the next day. 

Dani still can’t bring herself to plan any further than that. 

They spend a month at the house with the kids and Henry, spending their mornings in mostly quiet company while the children are off at school. Henry does his best to work from home most days so he spends the mornings in his home office and emerges thankfully sober just in time for lunch. He’s not much of a cook they find, but neither is Jamie, so they share a pot of tea while Dani moves through the kitchen to fix them something light for lunch. The afternoons are filled with tales from school and the playground from the children, Miles bemoaning the differences between the American public school he attends now the boarding school he’d been expelled from and Flora simply happy to be attending the school. 

In the evenings, they’d retreat to the room they shared on the second floor and spent hours getting to know one another in all the ways they’d never had time for at Bly. During the times they weren’t otherwise occupied by running their hands and mouths over one another’s body, they spoke of the past, of the memories they carried and the events that shaped them. Jamie talks more about the burn on her shoulder and the time she served and how she felt like everything had led her to gardening because gardening was what led her to Dani. What they shared felt like too much to simply be chance, more than people being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Dani talks about running away to England and the things she had done before that, the years spent as a classroom teacher pretending that she could be the person everyone thought she was. 

Other times, they simply lay in silence. They share one pillow, hearts beating in perfect rhythm and those are the times that Dani can feel the edges of Viola’s rage dulling. In those quiet, soft moments, wrapped in Jamie’s arms and knowing that she’s fallen completely in love with the woman holding her, that’s the closest Dani can get to feeling at peace. 

One night as Jamie tenderly strokes the bangs out of Dani’s eyes, Dani feels something other than Viola’s rage rise up. It’s sharp, painful, and Dani flinches away from Jamie without meaning too. The action makes her tumble out of the bed and she lands with a soft grunt, naked and trembling on the cold wooden floor. 

“Dani, Dani,” Jamie is beside her on the floor a moment later, pulling the duvet around the bare forms when she hears footsteps from down the hall. Someone must have heard Dani’s fall. She pays the sound no mind, pulling her trembling lover close as the door swings open. Henry enters first, Flora and Miles behind him. “Hey, Poppins, you’re okay. You’re here, with me.” 

“Sorry,” Dani’s still trembling in the circle of Jamie’s arm and it’s then she notices the three people assembled in the doorway. “Sorry.” 

“Are you alright?” Flora asks softly, walking further into the room. She and Miles kneel next to the couple, worried eyes on Dani. Dani moves until she can wriggle one arm from the blanket with exposing either herself or her girlfriend and uses that arm to stroke Flora’s hair and then Miles’ arm. 

“I’m fine, sorry,” Dani glances at Jamie first and then Henry, nodding at both of them in turn. Jamie’s arm around her waist tightens just the slightest bit, the pressure comforting and grounding. “Bad dream.” 

“We get them too,” Miles tells her softly with that same boyish charm that was solely him and none of Peter Quint. “But Uncle Henry says it will get better.” 

“It will,” Jamie agrees, lips pressed to Dani’s hair. “One day at a time.” 

Dani nods but can’t bring herself to say anything as that same emotion rises again deep in the part of her mind that Viola has taken over. It’s loneliness, complete and all consuming. Buried deep beneath the rage and hate is a loneliness unlike anything Dani has felt before. It was strong, so strong that Dani suspects it took them both by surprise. 

“Talk to me, Poppins,” Jamie whispers when they are back in bed, alone in their room again. “What happened?” 

“I can feel her,” Dani’s voice is soft and trembling. “The Lady, Viola. I can feel her and it’s more than before. More than the rage.” 

“What else is it?” Jamie’s hands are soft where she strokes the small of Dani’s back. She had Dani cradled against her chest, one hand in her hair and the other pressed against her skin. Dani has her head tucked against Jamie’s neck. “What does she feel?” 

“Alone, she’s so alone and I…” Dani swallows, presses her nose against the crook of Jamie’s neck and breathes her in. “I’m not.” 

“No,” Jamie presses a kiss against Dani’s hair, pulling her closer. “No you’re not. You won’t ever be alone again.” 

Dani starts to think that maybe they should plan for Christmas now. 


	4. The First Year

They make it to Vermont just in time for Jamie to have that white Christmas she’s always dreamed of, even though they spend the day itself in a hotel room that Henry insisted on paying for while they stayed there. They eat room service for dinner and drink lukewarm hot chocolate while watching  _ It’s a Wonderful Life  _ and it’s probably the best Christmas Dani has ever had. It’s enough to make her want to stay in Vermont for the next couple weeks of one day at a time. 

Days turn to weeks turn to months until they’re opening a flower shop downtown and moving into the loft above the shop, turning it into a place that can be home. They call the shop The Leafling and offer whatever they can in turns of flower arrangements, even having some more exotic choices shipped in. The shop gives them a front row seat to a wide range of stories unfolding, everything from first love to forever love to lost loves. They see young boys come in looking for a rose to give the girl they want to take to the dance, young girls come in and spend more time watching Jamie and Dani interact with one another, staring wistfully at them. Dani always offers those girls some of the cookies they keep behind the counter and doesn’t bother playing dumb when the ask about her and Jamie. Despite being a smaller town, they’ve been accepting of them and their relationship to a point. It’s an unspoken thing for the majority of the town, spoken only between the group of teenagers who come to them and say ‘I think I’m like you.’ 

“You know Poppins, you keep going on and on about us like that and they might start getting the pitchforks to run us off.” Jamie teases on day as she flips the sign from open to closed after a young girl, maybe 16, leaves the shop following a long conversation with Dani. 

“They haven’t done it yet, and it’s not like the whole town doesn’t know anyway,” Dani goes back to the flower arrangement she had been working on before as Jamie moves closer to her after a brief stop on the other side of the shop. “It’s been a year already, a full trip around the sun.” 

Jamie hums, looking at Dani with shining eyes. It’s a look Dani has been on the receiving end of far more often these days, a look that dulls the rage inside just a bit each time. Dani can’t help but smile back and she feels the monster within hide deeper in the jungle, watching and waiting in interest rather than in waiting. 

“I’ve got something for you,” Jamie says before placing a mason jar full of water and a single plant on the counter. Dani recognizes the bud instantly, her eyes snap up to meet Jamie’s. 

“Is that a moonflower?” Dani asks, eyes wide in joy. She swallows. “They’re really rare, you know?” 

“I’ve got a problem,” Jamie says, bouncing on her feet nervously in a way that Dani can’t help but find adorable. Jamie speaks again before Dani can say anything back. “Actually, we’ve got a problem, Poppins. You see, I’m not sick of you, at all.” 

Dani blinks, surprised at the words, and feels the smile growing on her lips. 

“I’m actually pretty in love with you, as it turns out.” Jamie takes a breath after she says the words like she’s bracing for a terrible reaction. But Dani simply smiles and moves around the counter, cupping Jamie’s face between her hands and pressing their lips together. They back up a bit, checking through the window before they move further out of sight with twin giggles falling from their lips. 

“I’m pretty in love with you too,” Dani says between kisses, tangling her fingers in the loose curls at the base of Jamie’s neck. 

Their bodies press together in that way that had become familiar and yet was still so thrilling, the weight of Jamie’s hips against hers and the way she kissed down her throat with the promise of more coming enough to let the rage inside fade into the love that was just as powerful, just as consuming. 

Luckily they remember to move upstairs into their apartment before clothes start coming off, but they don’t get much further than the beat up living room couch that’s actually more comfortable than the bed they have at the moment. Until then, part of Dani had still been afraid to commit to anything more than one day at a time. Mattresses, they came with warranties, guaranteed to last a certain amount of time that Dani wasn’t sure she had. But Jamie was so sure, so strong, had so much faith in Dani and in the life they were finally starting to really build. It was enough to make Dani believe in them too. 

After, pressed together under the throw blanket that sits along the back of the couch with Jamie resting her full body over Dani, nuzzling against a light mark on her neck that Jamie had put there only minutes before, Dani speaks. 

“We should order a mattress, a good one,” Dani felt the moment the words registered in Jamie’s hazy mind, holding back on the soft groan that wanted to pull from her throat as their bare bodies slide together when Jamie sits up slightly to look Dani in the eyes. One eye blue, one brown. “One that will last a long time.” 

“You sure?” Jamie asks but she can’t hide the hope in her eyes. Dani’s hand slides along her lover’s shoulder, her fingertips touch the old, scared burn mark there. 

“It’s been a year,” Dani lets her other hand move as well, holding Jamie by the hip. “It’s been a year and she’s, she’s still there. She’s still in the jungle, but I’m here. I’m still here and I’m still me.” 

Jamie leans down and connects their lips, settling her weight against Dani fully. “You’re still here. With me.” 

As they kiss again, Dani begins to think that maybe she always will be. Maybe whatever emotions Viola is hiding behind her wall of rage have given way to something softer than the loneliness Dani knows is there. Something like the love Dani feels for Jamie. 

Something like peace. 


	5. Third Year

The dreams of Viola Lloyd are starting to creep in more but never in a way that Dani can feel them coming on. They seem to come at random, no matter if Dani had had a relatively good day or not, no matter if Dani was holding Jamie while they slept or being held by Jamie, no matter if Dani wanted to to dream or not. 

The dreams were, not scary exactly but not altogether comfortable either. Some of them were like looking at old photographs, blurry around the edges and all that remained was the emotion of the moment, emotions that had faded and muted as time went on, it seemed Viola couldn’t identify what she had originally felt. Everything is still blanketed by the rage that had fueled the stubborn ghost for so long, but there’s glimpses of more occasionally too. More loneliness, more longing for what she lost, and even hints of regret. 

There are some dreams that Dani can’t talk about and Jamie doesn’t pressure her too. There are many nights when Dani wakes up shaking and crying from memories and feelings that aren’t hers and Jamie simply holds her close, whispering reassurances against her skin and stroking her hair until Dani feels like she can breathe again. Dani always feels unworthy of such care and affection, despite knowing that there’s been plenty of times where she’s done the same for Jamie. 

Jamie is no stranger to nightmares of her own, either from the trauma of her past or her fears of losing Dani too soon. Losing Dani at any time would feel too soon. But helping Dani, holding Dani close throughout the night and spending their days in the kind of domestic bliss Jamie never thought she would get, all of that makes it worth it. All the work of loving Dani and of letting herself be loved by Dani was worth the ever present risk of losing her. 

The dreams that Dani can talk about, Jamie listens to. She commits the details to memory, watches how Dani moves and speaks when she talks about the dreams. She looks for that light in her eyes, the one that always seems brighter when Jamie focuses on the blue eye rather than the brown. It’s the light that lets Jamie know all the things that Dani can’t say yet. 

“I’m sorry,” Dani whispers one night, her lips brushing against Jamie’s neck as she speaks. They’ve been in Vermont for three years now, were thinking of taking a trip to Paris to visit Owen for a bit, see his plans for the restaurant he’s building. It had gotten much easier to plan for more than one day ahead but there were still nights like this one, weeks like the last few had been, times where Dani doesn’t know if she’s feeling her emotions or Viola’s. Times where Dani can barely separate the love she finds so much strength in from the rage Viola hides behind. 

“Sorry for what?” Jamie whispers back, eyes closed even as her brow furrows a bit. Her hand is warm against Dani’s back, pressed between the fabric of Dani’s shirt and her smooth skin. 

“For all of this, for all the work you have to do for me,” Dani shifts like she’s going to pull away but Jamie doesn’t let her go, instead pulling her closer and kissing Dani’s forehead. 

“Baby, you don’t have to apologize,” Jamie keeps her voice low still but strong, eyes opening to look down at the woman in her arms, she wants Dani to hear every word she says. “We’re in a relationship, they take work. You work just as hard as I do to be here, probably even harder.” Jamie can’t imagine what it must be like to live with two people inside your head, even if one of them normally only comes out fully in dreams. “Besides that, I love you. I love you so, so much.” 

“I love you, too,” Dani’s voice is shaky with tears that Jamie wipes away with the pads of her thumbs. 

“That makes all the work worth it,” Jamie tells her with that soft smile of hers, the one that has made Dani melt since the day they met. “You’re still here, you’re still with me. That’s all I want.” 

“You deserve more than me, more than this,” Dani lifts slightly to look up at the woman she loves and she almost can’t handle the pure adoration in Jamie’s eyes. 

“Yeah, well, I don’t give a damn about what I deserve,” Jamie cups Dani’s face in her hand, stroking her thumb along her cheek and catching a stray tear as she does. “You are who I want. We could be living in a cardboard box in an alley somewhere and I’d still be just as happy, as long as it’s you I’m sharing that box with.” 

The analogy is enough to make Dani laugh and Jamie smiles like she’s just won the best prize in the world at the sound, leaning in and connecting their lips so she can feel Dani’s smile against her lips. 

“I love you, Poppins,” Jamie says between kisses, pressing a last kiss to the tip of Dani’s nose as she pulls away. “I promise, I always will. We’re in this together for as long as we have.” 

“I love you, too.” Dani kisses her again and for the first time in three years, she can’t feel any of Viola’s rage inside of her. 

It’s a shame that the lights are off and that Dani keeps her eyes closed when she pulls back to settle against Jamie’s shoulder again because if they had seen, they’d have had more hope than before. 

Because for the first time in three years, for those brief seconds that Dani couldn’t feel any of the rage inside, both of her eyes were wholly and completely blue. 


	6. Fifth Year

As the owners and operators of the best flower shop in town, as proclaimed by many of their patrons thank you very much, Jamie and Dani see a lot of weddings. Each one is stressful in it’s own way, each bride or mother or mother in law managing to be demanding and demeaning with a cheery smile plastered across their lips the whole time. It’s a wonder that Jamie hasn’t knocked anyone out in the five years that they’ve owned the shop. Not that there hasn’t been times she’s wanted to, of course. There were far too many would-be princesses who came in demanding things that simply took time to put together who took out their frustrations on Dani and that was  _ never  _ okay in Jamie’s eyes. 

But Dani had already proven to have far more patience than Jamie did and she handled those customers with a grace that always left Jamie a little bit in awe and filled with the need to kiss Dani senseless as soon as they were alone. (Which she always did as soon as the rude customers were gone, pulling Dani behind a conveniently placed shelf that was always filled to the brim and kept them hidden from view.) 

Even with the rude brides and mothers, it was hard not to get a little sappy about the weddings sometimes. They attended a few of them, the ones where the desired arrangements were too complex to leave in anyone else’s hands. It’s nice, a good change of pace from the shop and it’s not like they’ll complain about getting to see one another more dressed up than usual. They usually have everything set in time to watch the ceremony and they’ll trade loving looks across the space where they stand, on opposite sides of the room of course because that’s just where they ended up when the wedding march starts playing, and they both wonder what a day like this could look like for them. 

It’s an impossible dream really. They can’t get married, not legally. Being married at heart isn’t an argument that would be upheld by any kind of law and normally it’s not something they really think about. They’re together, they’re safe and happy and they get to spend every day wrapped in this perfect little bubble they’ve created for themselves where nothing is actually perfect but everything feels like it is because it’s all theirs. Most days, that’s more than enough. 

But there are some days when they wonder what it would be like, that level of commitment. Jamie wonders about how it would feel to be able to say the words ‘my wife and I’ and to not have that awkward pause that arises sometimes when people who are new to town or aren’t locals realize that she and Dani don’t just run the flower shop together. Dani wonders if that would help calm the longing she has for something permanent with Jamie. 

It’s been five years and Dani is still Dani. She still has dreams about Viola, but they’re still only that: dreams. Dreams that she’s learned how to talk through now, even the difficult ones, dreams that she can sometimes appreciate because of the emotions they dredge up behind the wall of rage. Dreams that make Dani wonder if time had really washed away all of Viola Lloyd until only a faceless shadow remained. 

It’s been five years and they’re so settled now, into their life and each other. They move around each other in the kitchen, cooking together because Jamie still can’t manage to put a decent meal together on her own and then cleaning up together with Dani washing the dishes and Jamie drying. They take turns in the bathroom sometimes and Dani kind of loves those nights because she gets to see Jamie moving into their bedroom with a cup of tea and relaxed shoulders, a shirt that barely grazes the tops of her thighs. Jamie climbs into the bed with her and their legs tangled together as they settle in, Dani watching some mindless movie on the television and Jamie holding a book in her lap with one hand, the other stretched across the front of Dani to hold her opposite thigh. 

Other times, they go into the bathroom at the same time and Dani loves those nights even more because Jamie will wash her hair and body with the gentlest of touch, will look at her like Dani’s the most beautiful sight she’s ever seen and kiss her beneath the spray of water from the showerhead. She’ll distract Dani with soft touches and lingering kisses as Dani repays the favor of washing her hair and body and then press Dani against the tiles of the shower wall, keeping her there until the water turns cold but neither of them notice because of the heat coursing through their bodies. She thrills when Jamie carries her to bed, joking about all those years of digging up stubborn plants and dragging even heavier potted plants around being useful for something. 

This thing between them has been going strong for five years now and doesn’t seem to show any signs of slowing down or stopping. Every time Dani thinks she’s fallen as deeply in love as she can, Jamie goes and does something even more incredible that makes her fall even deeper still. There are some days where Dani can forget about the ghost sharing her body, can push the rage that had seemed to be growing dimmer and dimmer away enough that she can think about a future with Jamie. 

Think about a golden ring. 

It only makes sense for the cruel joke that is fate to read it’s ugly head then as one of Dani’s fears finally comes to pass. 

Her dreams of Viola Lloyd have finally turned to true, terrible nightmares. 


	7. Seventh Year

The nightmares are different than Dani had been expecting. There’s pressure weighing down on her, no feeling of water feeling her lungs, no ripples in the air or distorted images above her. There’s no faces that she recognizes, nothing really familiar to her except the exterior of Bly Manor. She returns there far too often in her dreams, but everything is slightly differently, just barely to the left of what Dani had known in her brief time at the manor. It’s enough to let Dani put the pieces together. 

It’s not her dreams that she sees every night. 

Dani’s dreams, the ones that are products of her own mind, are much lighter these days. Brighter, cheerier, all centered around the person who makes Dani feel like that while awake. Dani’s dreams are filled with Jamie. Jamie’s touch, her kiss, her scent, the feel of her body. Jamie’s smile and grin and laughter and the taste of her lips that can never actually live up to the real thing. Lately, Dani’s dreams had been about the future with Jamie, her future with Jamie. A future with gold rings on their fingers and a little house filled with laughter and love, sometimes with children running around and sometimes without. A future that Dani wants so desperately to plan for. Those dreams are Dani’s and Dani’s alone. 

Viola’s dreams are the dark and grainy ones, the ones filled with anger and sadness and abandonment. Viola’s dreams are the ones that send Dani back into the waking world kicking and screaming as she feels another life drain from some nameless person at her hands. It doesn’t matter that it’s Viola who had done the deed, it’s Dani who feels the regret of it. 

Some nights, the ones where Dani relives what seems like all of Viola’s worst moments in the span of a few minutes, Dani wakes up thrashing and won’t let Jamie touch her. She can’t. There’s too much inside, too big of a chance that Viola will finally lash out and Dani would do anything to protect Jamie. 

Those are the worst nights for both of them. Dani retreats to a corner of the bed, as far away as she can get without leaving the bed altogether and Jamie watches her with tears falling down her cheeks. Jamie talks to her in a low, soothing voice. She reminds Dani that she’s still the one in control, that Dani is still there, still home, still with her. She whispers her love over again, waiting with baited breath as Dani’s sobs subside and she uncurls from the ball she wrapped her body into. She waits and waits until, finally, 

“Jamie,” Dani finds herself wrapped in Jamie’s arms before she can finish saying the name, tucking her head against Jamie’s neck and wrapping her arms around her waist. 

“I’m here baby, I’ve got you,” Jamie presses kisses into Dani’s hair and holds her gently, almost afraid to tighten her grip too much. “I’m here, you’re here. It’s just you and me.” 

“She’s so angry Jamie, so angry and alone,” Dani sniffles against Jamie’s neck and nuzzles closer until Jamie seems to realize that Dani won’t shatter and holds her tight. 

“You’re not her,” Jamie says softly. Dani’s shoulders are moving in a steady pattern now instead of the panicked breaths she’d been taking before, their hearts beating in tandem. “You’re the happiest person I know, and you’re not alone.” 

“I know,” there’s a kiss pressed against Jamie’s neck, a kiss that says so much more than Dani will ever be able to say out loud. “And I think she knows that, too.” 

“What do you mean?” Jamie asks as she pulls Dani back to lay down with her again, shifting around until they’re holding one another and sharing a single pillow. 

“The dreams, they’re always worse after days like today. Good days,” Dani has a slight smile on her face, one that takes Jamie back to the afternoon they’d had. It wasn’t very often that they closed the shop early but Jamie had been feeling adventurous and Dani was happy to indulge her. They had spent a good portion of the afternoon at the park, walking the simple trails in and around the small forest area hand in hand. They weren’t bothered, or at least if anyone in town was bothered by them, they didn’t show it. They were simply two women in love who had shared a lovely afternoon in the park, ending the day with takeout that they ate sitting on the floor of their living room, the food quickly discarded in favor of tasting one another. Jamie remembers the way Dani had whispered the words I love you against her skin and thinking that her brown eye seemed a little lighter than usual. 

“I suppose I should stop taking you on dates then,” Jamie jokes, hoping to break the tension a little. It works and she’s rewarded with Dani’s soft laugh and kiss pressed to her nose. 

“Don’t you dare,” Dani jokes back, sighing as Jamie pulls her in for a proper kiss. “I just wonder why it makes her so mad, you know? Me being happy with you.” 

“She was betrayed by her husband and sister,” Jamie reminds Dani, slipping her hand beneath the hem of Dani’s shirt to feel her warm skin. Dani hums slightly at the touch. “I’d imagine I wouldn’t want to deal with anyone else’s happiness either if that happened to us.” 

“I guess that makes sense,” Dani scoots closer, tucking herself beneath Jamie’s chin. “I just wish I didn’t have to feel her anger too. Sometimes I don’t know what’s stronger, her anger at the world or my love for you.” 

“We’ve had seven years, love. Seven years of your love holding back a rage that’s had hundreds of years to fester. I’d put my money on you anyday.” 

There’s something there, something that feels like it might be the answer to a question that Dani hasn’t been able to ask yet. A question that means hope and a future and forever. 

“I love you,” Dani whispers against Jamie’s neck as sleep begins to claim her, barely holding on long enough to hear Jamie say the words in return. 

This time her dreams are light and free, Jamie by her side in clear, perfect view. No distortions, no rage, no centuries old ghost that wants to pull them apart at the seams. In her dreams, Dani decides it’s time for something a little more permanent. 


	8. Ninth Year

After nine years, Jamie’s a little surprised that she still finds Dani so endearing. It’s getting harder for Dani, Jamie knows. She’s noticed her staring at her reflection a little longer than normal. She knows the dreams are getting worse and that Dani is pulling into herself a bit, but sometimes the real Dani shines through. The Dani that Jamie first fell for, a little broken, a little damaged but still a kind, caring person at heart. The kind of person who sees a dying plant on the street and picks it up, carrying it to safety so it can grow and flourish under caring hands. Jamie can’t help but smile at the woman she loves, gladly letting Dani take over cooking so Jamie can look at the plant she brought home. 

“Well, there’s your problem. Your roots are all…” Jamie trails off as her eyes catch a glimpse of gold buried in the dirt. A ring, a Claddagh ring, is hidden in the roots. Jamie picks the ring up. “Dani, why is there a-” 

“Here’s the thing,” Dani interrupts, looking more nervous than Jamie has seen her in a long time. “You’re my best friend and the love of my life. And I don’t know how much time we have left. But however much it is, I want to spend it with you.” Dani is nodding her head slightly as she speaks, eyes shining, and Jamie feels herself drifting closer, the answer already building on her tongue. “And I know we can’t technically get married but I also don’t really care. We can wear the rings and we’ll know and that’s-that’s enough for me. If it’s enough for you.” 

“I reckon that’s enough for me, yeah,” Jamie doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry so she lands somewhere in the middle, the ring sliding over the tip of her index finger as she closes the distance between herself and Dani, pressing their lips together in what might be the most gentle kiss they’ve ever shared. 

“I love you.” 

“I love you, too. So much.” 

They don’t plan a big ceremony to celebrate their wedding, but they do invite Henry and the kids down for dinner one evening. All three of them are overjoyed for the couple and Flora spends a few minutes waxing poetically about finding her true love one day much to Miles’ annoyance. Henry looks downright frightened at the thought of his niece falling in love one day. Luckily, in the way of brothers, Miles is sure to bring things back to a more level and amusing mood by wondering aloud how anyone could ever fall for his troll of a sister. 

It’s a nice dinner, one that they wished could happen more often. The Winegraves had largely been living their own lives away from the Claytons (Jamie had her name changed as soon as she could after the wedding) but they made an effort to share at least a phone call every once in a while. After dinner, when they were sitting in the living room together sharing drinks and stories about the last nine years, Jamie began to wonder if they were really there, really married, really living this amazing life together. 

“It seems so unreal sometimes,” Jamie commented as they climbed into bed after Henry and the kids had left for the hotel they were staying in for the night. Dani hums in response, looking at Jamie questioningly and there’s something different about her in that moment. Something lighter. Jamie can see it in her eyes even if she can’t quite put her finger on what it is yet. “This, us.” 

“Us?” Dani asks as they lay down, wrapping her arm around Jamie’s waist. Jamie hums in confirmation. 

“I’d never thought I’d get to live a life like this, not in my wildest dreams.” Jamie turns her head and presses a kiss against Dani’s cheek and then her lips. “It may not always be easy but it’s ours. What we’ve done in the time we’ve had so far, it’s so beautiful.” Jamie turns on her side and lifts her hand to brush Dani’s bangs out of her face. “You’re so beautiful. I almost can’t believe you’re my wife now.” 

“And to think we were first met, I was almost married to a man,” Dani says and Jamie knows that it’s going to be a good night for them, for Dani. 

“Perish the thought,” Jamie quipped with a roll of her eyes, laying on her back again. 

“Hey,” Dani reaches out and cups her face, pulling Jamie’s gaze to her. It’s hard to tell in the low lighting of their bedroom, but Jamie swears that Dani’s eye is a lighter brown than normal. “I’m really glad I married you.” 

“I’m pretty glad you married me too,” Jamie grins, moving to kiss her wife as she rises up slightly, hovering over the woman she loves. “Care to see just how glad I am?” 

Dani giggles and wraps her arms around Jamie, pulling her down on top of her. Jamie laughs with her for a moment and then she’s much more interested in making a different sound come out of Dani’s mouth. 

It’s definitely a good night, for both of them. 

They plan a trip to Paris soon after, wanting to tell Owen their news in person. This isn’t the kind of news that can really be shared over a phone call or through a letter and, after all, it’s been nine years since they were last back across the pond. This is something to be shared over dinner and champagne and Owen has a guest room that he’s invited them to use several times. It’s about time they took him up on the offer. 

Of course, planning the trip to Paris is different than actually getting there but they make it eventually and Owen is just as happy for them as he would have been six months ago. 

“Fantastic news,” Owen calls it over dinner at his restaurant. Jamie makes a quip about the name but they agree that it’s fitting, and that Hannah would have loved it. It would have made her laugh. 

For the majority of the meal, Dani feels light and present. There’s the near constant presence of Jamie’s arm wrapped around her and Dani can’t help but rest her free hand on Jamie’s thigh in time. She runs her thumb along the fabric of Jamie’s pants and marvels at how free she feels simply sitting there, holding and being held by her wife while they have dinner with a man that they both consider family. 

It’s shattered in an instant by the distorted image of Viola Lloyd looking back at Dani from the metal pitcher the waitress uses to refill her water.


	9. Eleventh Year

Dani can feel something different inside her, can see the evidence of the changes within in nearly every reflective surface she looks at. It’s not her that’s changing, not really. It’s the Lady, Viola. 

It’s hard to tell at first. When the apparitions started, Dani was sure that it was the sign that her time, the wonderful life she’d spent years building with Jame, was coming to an end. Her nightmares had finally become what she always feared, watching time pass on from the bottom of the lake at Bly Manor. She sees the path Viola had walked for so many years, feels the lives that Viola had drained from others. 

And eventually, she feels Viola’s regret at what she had done. 

It’s disconcerting to have all these years of rage stored inside give way to an inconsolable guilt. 

She’s not quite sure why that makes her draw into herself. She supposes it’s the guilt, even though it’s not hers it feels like it is. She doesn’t want to add to that and somewhere in the confused part of her mind, she thinks she’s sparing Jamie from the pain. Somewhere else, in the part of her brain that isn’t as confused and that knows how deep Jamie’s love for her goes, Dani knows that she’s only hurting her wife by pulling away from her. 

It comes to a head while doing dishes. 

“Are we going to talk?” Jamie asks, but there’s already a resigned tone to her voice. Dani thinks of all the things she could say, about all the ways her words could hurt Jamie even more, and stays silent. She continues washing the dishes, setting the clean plate on the towel for Jamie to dry and put away. “Take that as no.” 

Dani holds in a sigh, looking down at the water only to stumble backwards, the plate falling from her hands and smashing into pieces as it hits the floor. 

“Jesus!” Jamie says, surprised, as Dani backs far enough away from the sink that her back hits the opposite counter. “What’s going on? Are you okay?” Jamie’s voice has gotten slightly higher in her concern as she steps around the mess, hand raising to touch Dani’s arm. Dani’s vaguely aware of the warmth, and the way she can’t help but slow her slight trembling at the touch. “What’s going on?” 

“I-I saw her,” Dani’s voice is barely above a whisper and just as shaky as the rest of her. “She’s there.” 

“What did you see?” Jamie asks, looking back at the sink where the water is still running before focusing on Dani again. 

“Her,” Her mouth barely moves, sound barely coming out. “I keep seeing her.” 

“Okay, alright,” Jamie turns away for a moment, shutting the tap off and pulling the plug so the sink can drain. She quickly dries her hand on the towel and then she’s back in front of her trembling wife. “It’s gone.” 

“Is it?” Dani’s not even sure she said the words but the question remains. 

“It’s okay, it’s going to be okay,” Jamie braces one hand against the counter next to Dani’s hip and touches her arm gently with the other. “You can’t think the worst. We don’t know what this means.” 

“Jamie,” Dani can hear the desperation in her own voice and it almost feels like she’s already given up. 

“We could have so many more years together,” Jamie brushes Dani’s bangs away from her eyes. “Dani, we could have so many more years. We’ll keep an eye on it, and it will be fine. Okay? It’s going to be okay.” 

Dani isn’t sure she believes the words but she nods anyway and leans into the touch when Jamie cups her face. 

“I’ll do the washing up from now on, yeah? You’re shit at it, anyway.” Jamie tells her and Dani can’t help the short laugh that escapes because it’s so like Jamie to break the tension with a joke and Dani loves her all the more for it. Dani pushes lightly at the arms that are on either side of her until Jamie is wrapping her up fully and pulling her close. “Baby, come here.” 

Dani lets herself be pulled into her wife’s arms, falling into the kiss that’s pressed against the side of her head even as her gaze remains lingering on the draining sink. The image of Viola lingers in her mind. 

It was just a glimpse but Dani could have sworn that the woman who had looked back at her from the water was no longer a smooth faced monster. All Dani could really make out had been the eyes, both the same shade of brown as one of Dani’s. 

The encounters get worse after that, appearing so often that Dani can barely see herself in her own reflection. She doesn’t realize exactly how bad it is, until she suddenly has the feeling of being pulled back into herself, her hands and the tips of her hair wet. It’s Jamie that pulls her out of whatever trance she had fallen into, the concerned note of her voice pulling at Dani’s heart strings. 

“Do you see her?” Dani asks, still looking down at the water. She can feel Jamie’s hand against her arm. 

“I only see you.” Jamie responds, squeezing Dani’s arm slightly. The action brings Dani back to herself. 

“I’m sorry, the water. I didn’t even notice.” 

“It’s okay, water’s easy to clean up,” Jamie reassures her softly. She supports Dani’s weight as the woman leans against her and they both ignore the small pond that’s formed on their bathroom floor. 

“I’m so tired, Jamie,” Dani’s voice is still that same lifeless tone it had taken on recently and Jamie feels her heart break further for the woman she loves. 

“I know,” Jamie says, stroking her hand through Dani’s hair. “I know.” 

“It’s like every day, I can feel myself slipping further away. But I’m still here and I don’t understand how that is.” 

“You’re still here,” Jamie’s voice is stronger than Dani’s but no less desperate. “You’re here.” 

Dani looks at Jamie, studies the furrow in her brow and the worry in her eyes. “It’s like I see you sitting beside me,” she glances down at the hand on her arm and Jamie’s finger moves against the wet fabric as if in response. “And I can feel you touching me. And every day, we’re living our lives and I’m aware of that, but I don’t feel it all the way.” 

Dani turns her head slightly like she can’t bear to see the heartbreak written on her wife’s face. Seeing that is worse than dealing with all of the pain and guilt rolling inside her. 

“I’m not even scared of her anymore.” 

It’s the truth. Over the past 11 years, Dani has come to understand more of Viola. She knows what’s behind the rage, knows that it’s not the rage that is dragging her down but everything that the rage keeps hidden. Everything that Viola hadn’t felt for the centuries she was under the water. “I just stare at her and it’s getting harder and harder to see me. Maybe I should just accept that” 

“No.” Jamie shakes her head even as Dani nods. 

“Maybe I should just accept that and go.” 

“No, no,” Jamie settles closer to her wife, finding her wife’s left hand with her own. “Not yet.” 

“Jamie,” Dani says the name so differently than she ever has before and it sounds far too much like a goodbye for Jamie’s taste. 

“If you can’t feel anything, then I’ll feel everything for the both of us.” Jamie can hear the tears rising in her voice and feel them flooding her eyes but they don’t fall quite yet. “But no one is going anywhere, okay?” The tears start rolling, just one, down Jamie’s cheek. “You’re still here.” 

“What if I’m here, sitting next to you,” Dani begins in a shaky voice. “But I’m just really her?” 

Jamie swallows. “One day at a time.” 

Dani feels herself nodding slowly, feels Jamie’s hand leave her own only to wrap around her waist and pull her close. She feels Jamie release a shaky breath against her hair as she returns the embrace and the only thing that hurts more than Viola’s guilt is knowing that Dani is the reason for Jamie’s tears. 

She feels more exhausted than she ever has when they finally make it to bed after cleaning up all the water. She’s changed into a t-shirt and Jamie has her favorite flannel on as the curl up together. Dani drapes her arm over Jamie’s waist and kisses her softly, whispering her love against Jamie’s lips. Jamie returns the kiss and the words and it isn’t long until sleep claims them both. 

It feels like no time has passed when Dani wakes up, sitting beside her wife in their bed with her hand centimeters away from gripping Jamie’s throat. That moment is when she breaks. The Lady of the Lake had already taken so much from Dani, she wouldn’t get her wife too. Dani knows what she has to do. 

It’s difficult to slip out of bed without waking Jamie, who reacts to every little shift by moving closer to Dani like she can sense what her wife is planning even in her sleep. Eventually, though, Dani manages to slip out of bed and quietly change clothes. She leaves a note on the bedside table and places a long lingering kiss against Jamie’s forehead. 

“Eleven years,” Dani whispers because she can’t leave without saying some kind of goodbye. “And you made all of them special. I will always love you.” 

And then, Dani leaves. 

Hours later, Jamie wakes to the sunlight on her face. She reaches out automatically in search of the warmth that’s always waiting for her only to find cold sheets and an empty pillow. She sits up, Dani’s name dying on her lips as she spots the note. It’s simple, short, but each word breaks her heart. 

_ I won’t let her take you.  _

_ Forever yours,  _

_ Dani _

She barely remembers to throw on a pair of pants before she’s out the door, chasing after the love of her life. She’ll be damned if she gives up Dani without a fight. 

The grounds of Bly manor are just as Dani remembered them, though they’ve gotten unkempt over the years. Without Jamie there to tend to the gardens, the place has developed a wild sort of look, nature overtaking what man had made. The fog still rolls off the lake in the same way though and it’s there that Dani sits on the banks, watching and waiting. There’s a part of her that still longs to walk into the lake and stay there but there’s something else there too. Something that tells her to wait, a voice in her head that sounds a lot like her wife telling her that there has to be another way. 

The answer doesn’t take long to appear. 

It happens in a blink. One moment Dani is alone and the next there’s a woman dressed in white sitting beside her. 

“I’m surprised you came back,” Viola Lloyd says and Dani wonders if it feels weird for this woman to be speaking out loud again after so long. 

“I’m surprised I stayed away as long as I did.” Dani turns her head to look at the woman who’d been sharing her body for the past decade. Viola is so different now that her features have returned to her. Dani can see the beauty in her smile and what had once been kindness in her eyes. 

“You had a lot to stay away for,” Viola remarks. Dani touches her wedding ring with a small smile. 

“I suppose so.” 

“I am sorry for all I’ve taken from you,” Viola tells her and Dani can feel how sincere she is. “I never wanted to harm anyone. I simply wanted the life that was stolen from me.” 

“I understand,” Dani says because she does. If someone had taken Jamie from her, she’d do anything to get her back too. It’s not a kind of love that fades with time, even if time had hidden it from Viola. 

“I suppose I should thank you as well,” Viola laughs slightly when Dani looks at her, puzzled, “not just for sharing your body for the past 11 years, but for helping me as you did. I doubt you realize what you did for me, but I’m grateful nevertheless. Without you, I doubt I would have ever remembered who I am.” 

“How did I help with that?” 

“You loved,” Viola says like it is the simplest thing in the world. “You love Jamie with everything you have and allowed her to love you the same. Anything else in the world, all the stress I caused, it was just confetti.” Viola’s smile is wistful and full of memories. “Even with all my rage, I couldn’t keep you from loving her. Even with as much as I drained you, I couldn’t keep her from loving you.” 

“No one can keep Jamie from doing something once she’s made her mind up,” Dani chuckles, the warmth that comes from thinking of her wife helping fight off the chill in the air. 

“She’s a fighter, your wife.” 

“I’m happy for it,” Dani smiles. “I don’t know where I’d be if she hadn’t fought for me.” 

There’s silence for a moment. 

“I know what you dreamt, I know why you came here. You’re afraid of hurting her the way I hurt all those people.” Dani’s silence is all the confirmation Viola needs. “It won’t happen.” 

“What makes you so sure?” 

“I’m ready to let go,” Viola looks back over the lake that had been her home for so long. “Any instinct that you had to hurt other people came from me. It will leave with me as well.” She pauses. “And we both know you came here to make sure you would never hurt her, even without meaning too.” 

“How are you sure you’re ready?” Dani asks skeptically. It’s a little hard to believe that a woman with enough willpower to keep herself and several others trapped on earth for centuries is willing to let go after little more than a decade with Dani. 

“How did you know you wanted to marry Jamie?” Viola returns. “It’s a feeling. I don’t know how I know it, only that it is true. Perhaps I can finally reunite with my daughter.” 

“I hope you do,” Dani tells her. “Tell her I said hello.” 

Viola nods and the two of them sit there for a time, watching the sun rise over Bly Manor together. When the sun finally rises above the horizon, Dani sits on the banks of the lake alone, not another person or spirit in sight. 

The silence doesn’t last as long as she thought it would. She hears the car pull up and the door open then close, hurried footsteps across the lawn. She only turns when she hears her name called. 

“Dani!” Jamie is running towards her, a desperate cry on her lips. Dani stands for the first time in hours and catches her wife in her arms, steadying her as she sobs into Dani’s neck. “Dani.” 

“I’m okay,” Dani holds her wife close and soothes her with steady hands and a soft voice. “I’m okay, I’m here.” 

“Don’t you ever do that to me again.” Jamie whispers fiercely. “You can’t leave me, not like that.” 

“I’m sorry baby, I’m so sorry,” Dani presses a kiss against her hair and then her ear until their lips line up correctly and she can kiss her wife properly. “I’m sorry. I won’t do it again. I’m not leaving you.” 

“God, Poppins, I thought I’d lost you.” Jamie’s hands are shaking as she cradles Dani’s face between them, unsteady breaths dancing over Dani’s lips. 

“You didn’t, you won’t. Not for a long, long time.” Dani kisses her again and then pulls back slightly. “It’s just us now. Just you and me.” 

The words don’t really register in Jamie’s mind until much later, when they’re back in Vermont actually. By the lake, she’s too busy marvelling at the fact that her wife is still very much alive and kissing like she used to, before she stopped being able to separate her feelings from Viola’s. Dani is there and alive and lighter than she has been in years and Jamie’s so focused on that, she forgets to process what Dani is actually saying. 

Once they're back home, after taking a long bath together to wash away their impromptu trip across the pond, and Dani is wrapped in a towel as she stands at the sink to brush her teeth, that’s when Jamie finally notices. Dani has her back to the mirror and is watching Jamie as she towels off her body. Part of her wonders if this is real, if they actually made it through. She can feel it is, she can feel the emptiness where Viola used to be within her, she can feel the lightness of her shoulders. It’s nice, Dani thinks, to feel like she’s exactly who she’s meant to be again. 

"Hey Poppins," Jamie says and there's something different about her voice, something soft and warm that makes Dani feel infinitely more relaxed. "When did your eyes go back to normal?" 

"What?" Dani asks as she turns toward the mirror, toothbrush falling out of her hand. Her reflection stares back at her, only her reflection. Blonde hair, fair skin, pink lips, and two blue eyes. 

Two blue eyes. 


	10. Thirteenth Year

There’s a lightness about Dani now, one that Jamie can’t help but admire. She’s always known that Dani was as beautiful on the inside as she was on the outside, but there’s something special about getting to see that inner beauty shine through after so many years of being overshadowed. It’s like Jamie gets to learn who her wife is all over again and she couldn’t be happier about it. 

It’s a bunch of little things at first, that Jamie notices. Dani’s smiles come easier, her laughter flows more, the baby gays of the village gravitate towards her even more than before. Jamie can see why Dani had been a teacher and wonders if her wife will ever go back to that, she has a knack for taking care of children. But Dani seems content to continue running their little flower shop, taking care of the book side of things while Jamie tends to the plants in the system that had worked for them for the past 12 years. 

Dani’s more open with affections now as well. Not that she hadn’t been before, excepting the last few months before Viola left. Dani had always been affectionate with Jamie, holding her by the hand as they walked in the safe neighborhoods, stealing kisses during the day when the shop was empty, and always bringing Jamie something to eat and drink when she got busy with the plants or customers and forgot that she needed to take care of herself too. It was just different now. Her kisses lingered longer than before, she held Jamie’s hand a little tighter and sat with her while she ate, even if Dani had already eaten. It was one of the things that Jamie hadn’t really noticed Viola had affected so much. 

She convinces Dani to substitute teach sometimes, saying that she deserves a break from always running the books for the shop. The plants had always been more of Jamie’s thing than Dani’s, Dani had gone along because it made her wife happy. Even if Dani doesn’t go back to teaching on a permanent basis, at least she can still get some of that back. 

“You know, when you suggested I do this,” Dani comments one day as she walks into the shop just after 4 o’clock. “I didn’t think I’d get called in so often.” 

“They’re just desperate for perfect teachers,” Jamie says as she finishes the arrangement she was working on and slides it across the counter as Dani approaches. “Can’t really blame them for calling you.” 

Dani rolls her eyes affectionately and leans across the counter to place a short kiss against Jamie’s lip. Jamie hums at the contact, leaning in for a second kiss and Dani begins to pull. “Need help this last hour?” 

“Nah, go take a load off Poppins,” Jamie waves her with a smile. “I can manage.” 

“Yell if you need me,” Dani kisses her again, light and free and Jamie nearly melts on the spot. 

“I always need you,” Jamie mumbles against her lips and swallows the laugh Dani releases. 

“You flirt,” Dani teases and it takes Jamie back. Back to Bly, before everything went so horribly wrong. To a greenhouse and terrible coffee and Dani coming out early for the sole reason of flirting with Jamie, inviting her to a drink that they both knew would lead to more. Hard to believe that that morning was 13 years ago and now Jamie was married to the woman who still made terrible coffee but made up for it by being amazing in every other way. 

“I love you,” Jamie says softly. 

“I love you too baby,” Dani returns just as softly and suddenly Jamie can’t think of a single reason why they shouldn’t go ahead and close up early. 

So, they do. 

Jamie locks the door and flips the sign, Dani closes out the register and then they move up to their home together, leaning comfortably against one another. By the time they actually reach their door, hands have begun to wander and lips are pressing against necks and really, it’s a miracle they make it to their bedroom with any clothes still on. 

After, when they’ve cleaned up and decided that food sounds good, Jamie is sitting on the counter watching Dani cook them dinner. It still kind of amazes her that Dani can be so awful at making anything resembling a beverage but she can throw a meal together from almost nothing. Granted, her meals aren’t as fancy as Owen’s, but it’s still more than Jamie can do in the kitchen. 

“So, how was school?” Jamie asks. 

“Easy,” Dani smiled over at her wife. “Spent most of the day talking about what the 12th graders were going to do after graduation. It’s nice to see them so excited about the future.” 

“And so happy to get out of the town,” Jamie comments wirily. She remembers all to well her desire to leave her hometown. Of course, Jamie also had a shit childhood and wasn’t far before she ended up in jail for a bit. 

“Some of them want to stay,” Dani says. “I did, at least at first.” 

“Really? The girl who took a spontaneous trip to England wanted to stay in her hometown?” 

“Maybe wanted to is the wrong phrasing,” Dani, while still looking sad, seems to stand a little straighter, like the weight of her past isn’t dragging her down anymore. “Eddie didn’t have much more ambition than going wherever I was going. Staying where we were seemed easiest.” 

Jamie nodes in silent understanding. She knows how much her wife struggled before she came to London, how she was still struggling with so much when they met. She can’t help but be proud of the woman her wife had become. Strong, free, beautiful, and with the biggest heart of anyone Jamie’s ever met. 

“I’d assumed I’d have had kids at some point then too, and the town was nice enough. I don’t think I would have minded raising a family there so much.” 

Jamie can’t help but laugh slightly. “Just the husband bit, right?” 

“Well, yes, there would have been that,” Dani rolls her eyes and leans over to where Jamie is sitting to kiss her. “But I don’t think I’d mind raising a family here, either.” 

“Really?” Jamie can hear the surprise in her voice and knows it’s reflected on her face. 

“I tried not to think about it so much before,” Dani goes back to cooking like she hasn’t just sent her wife into a state of shock. “But it was always there, in the back of my mind. And now that I’m not going anywhere,” 

“Damn right you’re not.” 

“I’ve been thinking about it more.” Dani smiles at her wife’s interruption. 

“Thinking how?” 

“Well, it wouldn’t be easy. We’d need to find a house somewhere and obviously we can’t make a baby ourselves.” 

“I’m up for practicing whenever you are, though. Maybe one day we’ll manage it.” Jamie winks and smiles when she’s rewarded with Dani’s laugh and another kiss. 

“But there are always kids who need a home,” Dani continues when they pull back from one another. “Even if they don’t stay with us forever, I know we could help them. I’ve always wanted to make a difference in kids' lives.” 

“Just when I think I can’t love you anymore than I already do,” Jamie hops down from the counter to wrap her arms around Dani from behind, nuzzling against her neck and pressing a kiss there. “You’ll be a brilliant mum.” 

“What about you?” Dani half turns her head. “I don’t want you to do this just because I want to do this.” 

“I want too,” Jamie assures her softly. “I never brought it up before because we were always taking things one day at a time. That’s really all I need as long as I have you, Poppins.” Jamie kisses her neck again. “But you’re right. You’re not going anywhere and neither am I. There’s no reason why we can’t plan for the future now.” 

“I love you.” Dani turns in her wife’s arms and drapes her arms over Jamie’s neck. 

“I love you too.” Jamie grins at her. “How about we go practice making that baby?” 

“I thought you were hungry?” Dani asks even as Jamie reaches around her to turn off the burner and move the pan away so it won’t burn. 

“Who says I’m not going to eat?” Jamie bends and wraps her arms around Dani’s legs, lifting her with practiced ease. 

They only make it as far as the couch. 


	11. Fifteenth

Finding a house just outside of town is relatively easy, all things considered. Now that Dani and Jamie have been there for over a decade, the people in the town have grown used to their presence, even fond of them. It probably helps that their union is now civil and thus recognized by law, but there had been a general air of acceptance long before that. Dani and Jamie did their part in the community, lived their lives together and quietly made their way in the town. Turns out, that did more for them than they thought. 

Having The Leafling downtown gave them both plenty of time to make connections with the other business owners and patrons in the area, both professionally and a few that they got to know more personally. (They’d established a trade system with the coffee shop across the street, one that had worked for years and garnered both businesses more attention from passing tourists. One small bouquet/arrangement for one small coffee.) When Dani started substitute teaching, they made even more connections with the families in town and it was through them that they learned of a house for sale in one of the nicer neighborhoods. The house was large, two-story with three bathrooms and five bedrooms. A quick stop at the realtors office down the street from the shop, a house tour and a sizable payment later, Dani and Jamie were officially homeowners. 

Moving in proved to be a more difficult task. Dani hadn’t expected to feel so nostalgic as they packed up their apartment over the shop but maybe she should have. After all, they had spent close to fifteen years living there, most of that time with a literal ghost. The silving lining existed in the fact that they weren’t losing the apartment, weren’t planning to rent it out anytime soon so they could still come back to it if they wished, but Dani would miss living there. She enjoyed the process of moving, though. 

It seemed to be some kind of neighborhood event when they moved in and so they had a lot of help unloading trucks and moving furniture around. It was a great chance to meet all the people they’d be sharing the street with and if Jamie melted a little bit every time one of the neighborhood kids ran up to Dani yelling ‘Mrs. Clayton! Mrs. Clayton when will you teach me again?’ well, no one could really blame her. A few times Dani had pointed Jamie out to the children who were then extra excited because ‘there’s two Mrs. Claytons? Will she teach us too?’ And then Jamie would find herself swarmed by a small mob of children asking her about plants. Both interactions were entirely too adorable and made both women look forward to the days when it would be their own children fluttering back and forth between the two of them on the lawn, entertained with games and snacks while the adults milled around. 

With all the help, they were all moved in by mid-afternoon with only the unpacking to do, which Jamie convinced her wife to leave for the next day after they got the bed made up. 

“It’s not like we have a new bed to break in,” Dani laughed as Jamie hovered over her, shirt unbuttoned and a toned abdomen on full display. Dani couldn’t help but run her hands along Jamie’s stomach and smiled as she felt the muscles jumping beneath her touch. 

“We’ve got a whole house to break in, Poppins,” Jamie leaned down to kiss at Dani’s neck. “Gotta do it now, before we’ve got kids walking in on us all the time.” 

Dani laughed again and pulled Jamie into a kiss that voiced her agreement. Jamie had a point, after all. 

They spent a few months settling into their new place, getting into the routine of going into town for work and coming home in the afternoon, before they started looking into adoption. There was a lot of unnecessary paperwork and red tape to work through, but they eventually got their license to foster children with the option to adopt later on and so they ended up sharing their first Christmas in their new house with three small children. A six year old boy, a three year old girl, and another boy who was only a few months old. All siblings whose parents had died in a car crash. According to the kids’ files, at least their father had been a drunk and they hadn’t been treated very well while under his care. The social worker thought they might benefit from being in a house without a strong male authority figure. 

Dani and Jamie had fallen in love with all three of them on the first day. 

The oldest, Jonathan, was bright and cheery and smart as a whip. He wasn’t as used to open affection yet, he still tensed when anyone touched him unexpectedly or spoke in too loud of a voice, but he had started to warm up to them. The girl had the sweetest laugh and looked like she could have been Dani’s biological child, they were so similar. Her name was Hannah. Both women had teared up a bit when they learned her name, thinking back to their old friend. The baby boy, Michael, was just getting to the point where he was trying to sit up on his own and though the sleepless nights and diaper changes were frustrating at times, neither woman could hold onto that feeling for long. Michael was simply too adorable to stay mad at for long. 

They had spent Christmas morning piled together in the living room, opening what seemed to be a mountain of presents. Henry, Flora, and Miles had insisted on sending the little ones presents, as did Owen, since they couldn’t be there in person. Dani and Jamie thought it was a bit too soon to introduce the little ones to their extended family. That would have to wait. 

In the afternoon, Jamie took the two oldest kids outside to play in the snow while Dani settled Michael down for a nap and then got started on a substitute Christmas dinner for them. She had hot chocolate waiting for the three shivering but happy people who joined her in the kitchen once the novelty of the snow had worn off for a bit and though Jamie was a bit skeptic, they all drank it without complaint. Perhaps there was one beverage Dani could get right. 

They spent the evening watching Christmas films together in one large pile on the couch until all three of the children had drifted off, Michael curled in Jamie’s arms, Hannah lying between Jamie and Dani with her feet against Dani’s legs and head against Jamie’s arm, and Jonathan leaning against Dani’s other side. 

“They’re ours,” Jamie said, her voice low so she wouldn’t wake them. Dani stretched out the arm Jonathan wasn’t laying on towards her wife, slipping her fingers into short hair. 

“They are,” she agreed easily. She felt it the moment they met. “We’ll ask them tomorrow if they want to stay with us.” 

Jamie nodded, and gestured down towards Hannah. “Take her, will you? We should get them to bed.” 

Dani gently eased Hannah over until her position was almost reversed so Jamie could stand with Michael in her arms. Jamie rounded the couch, pausing to press a kiss against Dani’s hair, and then made her way up the stairs. Hannah shifted against Dani’s side, nuzzling closer to her. Dani leaned down and kissed Hannah’s hair and then repeated the action to Jonathan on her other side. Jonathan stirred at the touch. 

“It’s okay, buddy,” Dani soothed him as the little boy looked around. “Jamie’s just putting Michael to bed.” 

“And you’re up next, Penguin.” Jamie said as she came back into the living room. Dani smiled at her wife. Jamie had given all of the kids they fostered so far a different animal nick-name and she’d yet to use the same one twice. Jonathan had been dubbed Penguin when he awkwardly flapped his arms the first day they met, looking like a penguin trying to walk. Hannah became Koala bear due to her tendency to hold on to either Jamie or Dani like a koala at any given opportunity. Michael was Monkey because he had a strong grip that Jamie swore meant he’d be climbing all over things as soon as he could. “Say goodnight.” 

“Goodnight mom,” Jonathan said tiredly, leaning into Dani as she wiggled her arm free to wrap around him. 

“Goodnight buddy,” Dani returned with a kiss against his hair, sure there were tears shining in her eyes. Jamie lifted the boy up into her arms, eyes shining in the same way that Dani’s were, and carried him upstairs to his own room. Dani followed this time after maneuvering Hanna into her arms to carry her as well. Once the girl was tucked into bed, Dani made her way to Michael’s nursery to check on him and kiss him goodnight before she made her way to the master bedroom to wait for her wife. Jamie joined her after a quick stop in Hannah’s room to kiss her goodnight as well. 

“He called you mom,” Jamie said, sounding as amazed as Dani felt. “Do you think that means he wants to stay?” 

“I hope it does,” Dani changed into something to sleep in and then crawled into bed, quickly joined by Jamie. “They’re ours Jamie, I can feel it. It’s almost like how I felt when I first saw you.” 

“And how’s that?” Jamie asks, though she’s heard the story before. She loves hearing her wife say it. 

“Like I’d known you all my life, like you were always meant to be a part of it.” 

“Ditto Poppins,” Jamie pressed their lips together shortly. “I love you.” 

“I love you, too,” Dani kissed her again. “And I love our family.” 

Somewhere above them, in the place where she had finally found her rest, Viola Lloyd smiled down at the happy couple as they fell asleep in one another’s arms. She knew that Dani and Jamie deserved to enjoy all the good in life they could get and was happy to see that the same love that had been her salvation was still growing after all these years. 

All in all, after fifteen years, their life could only be described as perfectly splendid. 


	12. Twentieth Year

It’s funny, in an ironic sort of way, that Flora had chosen to get married on the lawn of a haunted mansion. They arrive the day before the rehearsal dinner and spend a few hours exploring the grounds with Jonathan, Hannah, and Michael while they wait for the other guests to arrive. Really, they’re just waiting for Owen, who joins them on the lawn once he arrives. 

“That looks,” Owen pauses his words, stopping in time with his steps as he comes to stand beside Dani. “Dangerous.” 

“Only when one of them misses the ball,” Dani offers the man a smile and accepts the hug that he leans over to give her, Jamie following suit. “How are you?” 

“Severely jetlagged,” Owen chuckled as he released Jamie. “And also unable to believe that we’re here for Flora’s wedding.” 

“Oh I know,” Jamie agrees. “She’s still 7 years old in my mind.” 

“Pretty soon we’ll be at a wedding for one of your little monsters,” Owen’s laugh remains despite the dual glare he receives from Dani and Jamie. 

“Oh god, he’s right,” Dani turned to glare at her wife when Jamie spoke. “What? He is. Jon’s eleven now babe, almost a teenager.” 

“Don’t remind me,” Dani turned her gaze back towards their children and wrapped her arm around Jamie’s waist. “I already feel old.” 

“Oh darling,” Jamie returned the side embrace, “you are old.” 

Dani rolled her eyes with a scoff, pinching Jamie’s side and then soothing the mark by running her thumb over the spot softly. Jamie laughed, free and light, and squeezed Dani around the waist. Owen chuckles at their antics and privately wonders if this was the life he and Hanna could have led together. Not without its hardships but with so much love and dedication that the hardships were something they could get past and be stronger because of. 

“Uncle Owen!” Hannah cheers when she notices the man, running over and pulling on his hand until he relents and begins playing an odd combination of soccer and dodgeball with her and her brothers. Owen stays in the game for all of 10 minutes before he’s winded and gasping on the sidelines, at which point Jamie steps in as the fourth player. 

“How do you keep up with them?” Owen asks Dani as he catches his breath. 

“Years of practice,” Dani responds warmly and pats him on the back. “And having a partner is really helpful too.” 

Owen hummed in agreement, his mind again drifting back to the woman he had loved and lost before he’d even realized he loved her. 

“Do you have your speech ready?” Dani asks him and they spend the time chatting and catching up while Jamie tires the children, and herself, out with their ball game. 

The other guests have all arrived by the time Dani and Jamie herd their family back inside so Jamie excuses herself with the kids to go clean up before dinner in their rooms. While they’re gone, Dani and Owen move to a table and help themselves to the buffet spread out in the dining room. Henry joins them after a bit and once Jamie and the kids return from cleaning up Miles and Flora both stop by the table as well to say hello. It’s strange to be around them sometimes. Miles and Flora had both forgotten the troubles of Bly Manor, though they remembered the people that had been there. They remembered Owen cooking for them and Jamie tending to the gardens and Dani taking care of them. It felt like some kind of reward for surviving that at such a young age, Dani thought. To remember the small things and forget all the scary. 

Thanks to the hours of playing on the grounds, getting the kids to settle into bed is relatively easy so Dani and Jamie are ready to turn in themselves earlier than usual. 

“This place brings back memories, doesn’t it?” Jamie comments as they slide into the bed together, the mattress comfortable but not as familiar as the one they share at home. Dani hums in agreement as she pulls Jamie to her and let’s her wife happily nuzzle against her neck. 

As Dani threads her fingers through Jamie’s loose hair, she can’t help but let her mind drift back to Bly. She remembers the beauty of seeing the manor for the first time, the joy she felt as she walked up across the grounds. She remembers Flora’s joy and Miles' childish charm as they shook hands. Hannah’s warm greeting, the first meal that Owen had made for her. Dani remembers tucking the children in at night and eating with them in the morning. She remembers the first time she saw Jamie in the kitchen, walking over to the sink with barely a backwards glance at Dani. 

The romantic in Dani likes to think that that first moment was when she fell in love and it might be partially true, but the realist in Dani knows that the romance and affection had come later. That it had developed naturally over bad jokes and even worse coffee, late nights walking the grounds in the cold and touching hands in moments that Dani had wanted to last forever. She thinks of the wine that had lingered on Jamie’s lips the first time they kissed, and the sounds Jamie had made a few weeks after when they finally gave into their mutual feelings. 

Now, after twenty years with Jamie and even having shared half of those years with the person who was the literal source of all their problems at Bly, when Dani thinks of the months she spent there, she only remembers the good times. 

“It brings back good memories,” Dani says softly, her lips brushing across Jamie’s forehead. Jamie hums questioningly. “This place brings back good memories. It reminds me of when we fell in love.” 

“You say that like I don’t fall in love with your a little more every day,” Jamie jokes with a playful poke against Dani’s stomach and she doesn’t have to lift her head to know that Dani had rolled her eyes but she does so anyway and finds two blue eyes staring back at her with the same love and devotion they had every day for the last twenty years. 

Two blue eyes. 

There’s something soft in Jamie’s eyes as she gazes at her wife, something that speaks to her wonder and amazement and sometimes sheer disbelief that this is actually her life. She made it, made something of herself, built a life she can be proud of with a woman she adores. 

It’s love but it’s also so much more than that.

“I love you,” Dani says softly, pressing a kiss against Jamie’s lips. Jamie kisses back just as softly. 

“I love you too.” 

Flora’s wedding is beautiful and as the two women watch the newly married couple dance together, they can’t help but let the image of a young Flora take over. They see Flora in her old sundress, eyes big and hopeful and still describing everything as ‘perfectly splendid.’ When she dances with Miles, they see the two siblings as kids again, both causing trouble for Dani in their own way but both slowly teaching Dani how to be okay with herself again. 

Their own children are dancing as well and suddenly their minds flash forward instead, to another 20 years in the future where it’s their daughter getting married and their sons smiling as they dance with her and still there, lingering on the edge of the dancefloor together is Dani and Jamie. 

“Quite a view, isn’t it Poppins,” Jamie says, her hand on Dani’s waist and a glass of champagne in her hand. 

“I don’t know,” Dani shrugs and sips at her own drink. “I think our wedding was better.” 

Jamie laughs because their wedding had been a simple, ‘marry me?’ followed by a civil union several years later. There had been no party, no dancing, and definitely no free booze. Jamie wouldn’t trade it for the world. 

“‘Course ours was better,” Jamie agrees and kisses her wife’s cheek gently, careful not to leave any lipstick there. “But this is a close second.” 

Dani laughs her agreement and turns her head to kiss her wife properly. 

“Still, I wouldn’t mind a party like this for us one day,” Dani says when they part a moment later. 

“Me neither,” Jamie agrees but tilts her head slightly, a teasing smile. “But I’m still good with one day at a time, as long as it’s you and me.” 

“That’s how it will always be,” Dani moves so she can wrap her own arms around her wife and they begin to sway to the music. “You. Me. Us.” 

Those three words had never sounded better. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you guys so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed my version of the happily ever after Dani and Jamie totally deserved. And thanks to every who has commented and left kudos, they mean the world to me. 
> 
> See ya on the next one!


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